Why truTV may be Turner Sports’ ticket to UEFA Champions League success

While many English-language sportswriters and sports business reporters in the U.S. were caught by surprise by Turner Sports’ $180 million winning bid for the U.S. English-language media rights for the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League for August 2018-May 2021, this seemingly bold move by Turner Sports appears to this long-time observer of the U.S. sports media business to be part of a plan that was formulated by Turner Sports executives at the start of this decade.

Ever since Turner Sports won the rights in April 2010 to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament in a joint bid with CBS Sports, Turner Sports has been looking for another sports TV product with a predominately young male audience (ages 18-34) to bolster truTV, which aired its first live sports event with four “First Four” basketball games from University of Dayton Arena in March 2011. (Some readers may recall that former British Prime Minister David Cameron attended one of the “First Four” basketball games in Dayton as a guest of former U.S. President Barack Obama, and that Cameron alluded to the similarities between the NCAA basketball tournament and the English F.A. Cup in an interview conducted by truTV basketball co-commentator Clark Kellogg.)

Sportswriter Jon Wilner of San Jose Mercury News wrote the following on March 11, 2011 in his College Hotline blog:

Turner’s involvement with the NCAA Tournament — specifically: its interest in building TruTV — indicates that it may come to the negotiating table (for PAC-12 Conference media rights), perhaps with a partner.

Described by one source as being “as hungry as anyone,” Turner is well aware (through its experience with the NBA on TBS/TNT) that showing live sports content allows it to charge more for subscriber fees.

Having one week of college basketball on truTV each year is clearly NOT enough for Time Warner, the parent company of Turner Broadcasting and Turner Sports, to charge a premium monthly subscriber fee for truTV, in comparison to Turner Broadcasting’s entertainment TV channels with live sports coverage, namely TNT, which airs National Basketball Association regular season and playoff games, and TBS which airs Major League Baseball regular season and playoff games:

Source: SNL Kagan

Since 2011, Turner Sports had several opportunities to submit bids for video rights to sports properties with young male audiences, namely “Power 5” college football and basketball products, but Turner Sports had not been successful in landing the rights to any of those properties.

71 Comments

So is the author of this article also the person that comments under the username, The Money Team? Because this article brings up the same exactly points that The Money Team wrote in their comments for the “Who Turner Sports should hire for Champions League TV coverage” article.

To all readers: please keep the comments to this article constructive with a cordial tone. Thank you. I expect Turner Sports and CNN executives, not to mention the 28 talented and hardworking CNN employees who put together World Sport from Atlanta and London, to read this article and the comments over the next 10 days. They are aware of this article.

Please refrain from using the reply box to take cheap shots at Christopher Harris and/or me. Attacking me for something I wrote years ago won’t make 2018-2019 UEFA Champions League telecasts on truTV any better.

If you are going to post this for the world to see, include considerable opinion, and tie it to commenter ‘The Money Team’ (who’s factual accuracy is questionable at best), you should expect criticism. No post on this site is above reproach, especially the thinly veiled agenda driven pieces. If people from Turner are reading – great! – they can tell us the real deal instead of guessing and then we don’t have to go through this exercise. What you post on this site, of course has zero to do with the actual Champions League broadcasts, but does tarnish your credibility on future posts and opens the door for all this criticism.

That said, with the considerable speculation on what Turner channel the Champions League matches end up is sort of…pointless. The flip side to your argument is why Turner would want to disrupt TruTV as it is – Turner could put the matches on TBS or TNT and possibly gain more than 6 cents a subscriber/month given the higher brand recognition and awareness TBS & TNT have over TruTV. Perhaps you are overestimating TruTV as anything more than overflow programming for 1 week a year in terms of sports properties. The same could be said for HLN – it’s just overflow programming, and not a key component. Also, the contract with UEFA could very well call for specific channels.

I was NOT the first one to suspect that Turner Sports will use UEFA Champions League to bolster truTV.

Jon Wilner of San Jose Mercury News figured that out 6 years ago before the PAC-12 Conference media rights went to bid when he talked to sources with knowlege of Turner Sports’ plan to bolster truTV with another sports product.

The fact that Wilner 1) had to wait 6 years before his reporting in 2011 become true, and 2) the product that Turner ultimately won happens to be UEFA Champions League instead of “Power 5” college football & college basketball, doesn’t change the fact that Turner has a plan to bolster truTV with live sports besides 1 week of NCAA basketball each year.

I briefly spoke with Wilner’s colleague at the Mercury News, columnist Tim Kawakami, on Sunday at Oracle Arena. Kawakami agreed with me that Wilner essentially got the story right 6 years before it happened.

There are two additional video clips featuring Kate Riley that are worthy of your attention:

1. The 4.5-minute news package she produced for World Sport from various locations in Los Angeles during Leicester City FC’s pre-season visit was absolutely world class. Not only did she show off her production, presentation, and storytelling skills, her personality was on full display.

Sorry Oliver… your past speculations leave you open for valid criticism. Your positioning yourself as some type of broadcast insider is part of your continous fantasy. Your fascination with trying to get women broadcasting jobs is nothing less than “creepy”. Please stop. This article is nothing more than guesswork on your part.

Is it a coincidence for the following sequence of events to happen 8 years apart?

1. FOX Sports outbids ESPN, Inc. for U.S. media rights to 2009-2012 UEFA Champions League after ESPN, Inc. had hired Jamie Horowitz to launch sports talk shows on ESPN2 such as First Take and SportsNation

I am still amazed that one particular media executive, Jamie Horowitz, is a key figure involved with two different sports TV networks each losing the U.S. English-language rights to the UEFA Champions League, 8 years apart, largely for the same reason. Horowitz had created and executed an alternative programming strategy for the incumbent network so that the incumbent network can afford to lose the UEFA Champions League to a more aggressive bidder that needs to use UEFA Champions League to build distribution and increase subscriber fees.

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Horowitz and I have a history that went back to the afternoon of Friday, February 12, 1999 at Negoesco Soccer Stadium at the University of San Francisco, when both the U.S. Women’s National Team and an international women’s all star team were both practicing that afternoon ahead of a World Cup Draw Gala event on February 14 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose. Horowitz was a production assistant for NBC Sports/NBC Olympics at the time, and he was doing research and interviewing players to prepare for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The last time I saw Horowitz in person was in July 2008, when I ran into him at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Horowitz was in production executive charge of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) broadcasts on the ESPN Networks. As I recalled, I encountered a team of ESPN officials including Horowitz as I was walking through a corridor inside the casino toward the North Parking Garage with my Spanish-speaking female sportscaster/poker announcer client (who had just signed a deal to represent FullTiltPoker.net and was in Las Vegas to meet her new bosses; she was calling poker for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America at the time.)

I did represent one Spanish-language broadcast talent near the end of her 27-year career. I got her a much better offer (on-camera hosting and brand ambassador roles) after she was forced to leave ESPN Deportes/Latin America due to a conflict with an ESPN Latin America sponsor. With FullTiltPoker.net, she was able to make at least 3 times compared to what ESPN was paying her to voice poker shows.

Time Warner (the parent of Turner) can’t raise $60 million/year in subscriber fee increases by putting UEFA Champions League matches on TNT and/or TBS. The subscriber fees on those channels are too high already.

Time Warner can raise $60 million/year in subscriber fees by putting the matches on truTV and HLN.

There is no possible way for Turner to recoup the $60 million/year in rights fee by selling advertising. The viewership for UEFA Champions League in the U.S. market is still too small for the advertising-only model to work economically.

I understand that some veterans in the industry are concerned that Turner Sports might be tempted to move too quickly to lock up a studio host for the UEFA Champions League telecasts.

Those concerns are valid, as I believe that Kate Riley has never hosted a studio show for a live sports event.

Not every successful news presenter/correspondent has the skills and the temperament to be a studio host for a live event.

A studio host for a live event is a highly stressful job, requiring the host to think on her feet under tremendous time pressure. She will have to formulate relevant follow-up questions for reporters and pundits in an instant.

Furthermore, a studio host for a live event will have to moderate a panel of pundits, many of whom will behave like children and will get into heated arguments. Will the host be able to keep control of the pundits and move the show along so that the show can take all the commercial breaks on time?

The studio host must also be able to transition and recover gracefully from technical malfunctions. How will she react if the video feed of the reporter from the stadium were cut off? How will she react if the lights in the studio were to fail during the live broadcast?

Knowing that Turner Sports is a competent organization that demands excellence, one would expect Turner Sports to thoroughly and rigorously audition a short list of candidates for the studio host position, with Kate Riley likely getting the first opportunity to audition.

At first, I thought this was a very thoughtful, well written piece. But the more I think about it now, from Turner not deciding to put a big property like UEFA Champs League on the primary TNT and TBS channels (as that is available to the most eyeballs, including those in hotels, airports and are traveling and don’t want to have to rely on their phone or laptop to watch a prominent game) to now Kate Riley being pushed like this, there seems a bit of an ulterior motive to this post.

Since it’s Turner, I’m expecting to see a clownish studio show, and a deluge of in-game ads cluttering up the screen during the game. And if they use their own dopey American game commentators instead of the Brits like Martin Tyler, etc., I’ll never watch a single minute of that garbage.

I would not be surprised if Turner were to select only one “American” to be on camera, and she is only American by birth as she is culturally British and she broadcasts with a British accent.

The World Feed commentators calling the matches “off tube” at Input Media in London are all British.

If Turner were to spurge a little and do what NBC does by hiring one team to broadcast big matches from the stadium, I would expect Turner to hire two British commentators.

As for your “clown show” comment:

There are two many divers, cheats, and poor referees blowing calls in UEFA Champions League play.

One would expect Turner Sports to offer a viewer participation element in the spirit of the wildly successful Shaqtin’ A Fool on both TNT and NBA TV.

Studio pundits working on UEFA Champions League matches for Turner will absolutely be expected to mock and ridicule these divers, cheaters, and poor referees. A easy name for this post-game segment is of course:

NOT tru.

Not only does “NOT tru” incorporate the truTV brand, “NOT tru” just happens to rhyme with “not cool”. That’s something that can certainly relate to males ages 12-25 and 18-34.

If you find Turner networks, and “Shaqtin’ a Fool” to be entertaining, more power to you. But not all of us are so enthralled with American sports broadcasting that we want to see carbon copies on football (soccer) broadcasts. Especially not the juvenile studio shows.

The monthly subscriber fees for TNT ($1.76) and TBS ($0.91) are already too high due to NBA on TNT and MLB on TBS.

However, the monthly subscriber fee for truTV is only $0.10. Time Warner (parent of Turner) has plenty of room to raise the monthly subscriber fee for truTV. Time Warner’s preferred method in the past with TNT and TBS has always been to add live sports events. Turner will have UEFA Champions League to accomplish the same thing with truTV.

Turner Sports cannot make the same mistake ESPN, Inc. made by putting too many expensive products on ESPN(1), which has a monthly subscriber fee of over $7. Pay TV operators (cable, satellite, telco) has repeatedly singled out ESPN(1) for blame every time someone complains about the cost of his/her monthly pay TV bill.

(The regional sports networks are more expensive than ESPN(1),, but ESPN(1) is still getting all the blame, fairly or not.)

At this point, most readers who have put some thought into how pay TV works would agree that Turner Sports’ plans to raise the subscriber fee for truTV by 6 cents a month in order to pay the $60 million/year rights fee for the UEFA club properties. I am 99% confident that the best UEFA Champions League matches (plus the UEFA Super Cup) will be headed for truTV come September 2018 (August 2018 for the UEFA Super Cup).

Because the UEFA Champions League will have matches in 2 time slots (1pm and 3pm Eastern) starting September 2018, Turner will only need 2 English-language channels. I am assuming that the overflow channel will be HLN in the chart below. Note that the overflow channel will only be needed during the Group Stage because of the 2 time slots.

[Also note that the “playoff round” is no longer included in the rights package because the 4 best leagues (based on UEFA Coefficients) will have 4 teams each into the Group Stage. ]

Unless I am missing someone, Turner Broadcasting currently has a pool of 6 sports anchors and correspondents involved with the World Sport program on CNN International and CNN Airport Network:

Based in Atlanta:

Kate Riley
Don Riddell
Patrick Snell

Based in London:

Amanda Davies
Alex Thomas
Rhiannon Jones (freelance)

One can narrow this pool of 6 into just 2 if one were to come up with “in house” candidates for the studio host role for UEFA Champions League on truTV, which will target young American males ages 18-34 who want to consume big time international soccer on U.S. English-language television.

(My apologies to Ms. Davies if she were reading this. Ms. Davies will turn 39 by the time the UEFA Champions League starts airing on truTV in September 2018.)

Kate Riley and Rhiannon Jones have different strengths and weaknesses.

Let’s do a “tale of the tape” to compare the two.

1. Experience: edge goes to Rhiannon Jones, as she has actual experience hosting studio shows for live event broadcasts when she worked at Real Madrid TV. Based on my limited research, I believe that Kate Riley has never hosted a studio show for a live sports event.

2. Physical appearance: edge goes to Rhiannon Jones, who is physically fit, looks a like a model, and has done “brand ambassador” work (wearing a uniform or costume to represent a brand at a trade show or event. Interestingly, Ms. Jones and I have both done brand ambassador work at a trade show organized by Google, though at different trade shows on different continents.) Kate Riley appears to me to be no taller than 5′ 4″.

3. Personality needed to connect to male viewers ages 18-34: edge goes to Kate Riley. Watch the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge videos of Kate Riley and Rhiannon Jones, and you can see the difference in personality between the two:

When CNN needed to hire someone to replace the infamous Canadian “Diva” Lara Baldesarra to anchor World Sport, CNN had a choice of several candidates, including two freelancers at the time of hire: Kate Riley and Rhiannon Jones.

CNN hired Kate Riley full time.

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With that said, Rhiannon Jones will have significant value if Turner Sports were to hire her for a role on the UEFA Champions League on truTV broadcasts. Because Ms. Jones speaks Spanish fluently and is learning Portuguese as well, she would be way too valuable as a pre-match and touchline reporter, particularly for matches involving Barcelona or Real Madrid.

One major item on Turner Sports’ to-do list is of course SECURITY for its personnel while they are in Europe to cover the UEFA Champions League.

In light of the reported terrorist attack on the team bus of Borussia Dortmund (which reportedly injured Marc Bartra, whose arm was reportedly cut by glass from a shattered window) as the team traveled from the team hotel to Signal Iduna Park (Westfalen Stadion) prior to the UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal 1st Leg match on April 11, the security issue is now front and center.

If Turner Sports were to hire its own commentary team for the primary match of the day, the cost of sending that commentary team to the stadium now goes up dramatically.

The cheapest way, of course, is for Turner to use the world feed for ALL matches, at the expense of quality, as those world feed announcers who call the UEFA world feeds from Input Media in London for a reason: they are NOT good enough to work for domestic broadcasters in the U.K.

Like many of you in the U.S., I recorded the FS1 (formerly FOX Sports 1) broadcast of the Juventus-Barcelona UEFA Champions League Quarterfinal 1st Leg match on April 11 for further study.

I am almost certain that Turner Sports officials did the same.

This broadcast is interesting, despite its gloomy and somber tone due to the incident involving the Borussia Dortmund team bus, for many reasons:

1. The FOX Sports on-camera talent had to shift gears and become “newsmen” on short notice. In particular, Eric Wynalda shared his knowledge of the Dortmund area to the viewers because he played for Saarbruecken, which is about 200 miles away. Wynalda mentioned that he stayed at the hotel where the Dortmund players stayed overnight prior to the match and that the route taken by the Dortmund team bus from the hotel to the stadium was well known to everyone, including those responsible for the explosions which damaged the bus and injured Dortmund defender Marc Bartra.

(The incident could have been much worse. This was a major security failure for all parties involved, including the local police and the operations personnel at Borussia Dortmund who are in charge with team security. Having worked for a contract event security company as a guard on 4 assignments involving the U.S. Men’s National Team when they were in San Jose a few weeks ago, I have enough knowledge and understanding of the possible sequence of breakdowns that may have occurred to allow ugly incidents such as the one in Dortmund, and the hooliganism that took place in San Jose prior to the Club America vs Monarcas Morelia friendly, to happen. )

2. FOX Sports was able to contact Derek Rae, who was scheduled to do play-by-play of the match for BT Sport in the U.K. Derek, being the seasoned pro that he is, shifted gears and become a newsman for the evening. Derek shared his observations inside Signal Iduna Park, including the heartwarming gesture of the 3000 traveling Monaco supporters chanting “Dortmund! Dortmund!” to show their solidarity, and the organized response by Dortmund supporters on Twitter to offer the Monaco supporters places to stay overnight so that they can attend the postponed match on Wednesday.

3. Danny Higginbotham provided co-commentary (match analysis) for the world feed from Input Media in London. This was the 2nd time in 3 days that Higginbotham worked on a world feed that was picked up by a U.S. television outlet (he also provided co-commentary for the Manchester City vs Hull City English Premier League match last Saturday, which was taken straight through by NBCSN.)

Higginbotham is a relatively young pundit who has made a name for himself in the U.K., but he is still largely unknown in the U.S. because he is NOT a “big name”. Higginbotham was a journeyman player in the Premier League and he represented Gibraltar instead of England at the international level?

If Turner Sports were to select a co-commentator to call UEFA Champions League matches from the stadium, does Turner Sports have better options than Higginbotham?

For example, are there “big name” former players with impressive resumes and squeaky clean reputations who has been completely overlooked by the British media outlets for various reasons that are available to be selected by Turner Sports?

I believe that better options then Higginbotham do exist for Turner Sports, but I will NOT post those names here. If Turner Sports wants to know those names, they will have to contact me.

The Europa League is a secondary tournament with very low viewership (less than 100,000 viewers for most matches). Very few Europa League matches feature “brand name” clubs (though in 2017-2018, both Manchester United and Arsenal are currently ticketed for the Europa League.)

I would be very surprised if the Europa League were on TBS or TNT. Again, Time Warner needs to build up truTV and HLN (by raising monthly subscriber fees) with live sports events. Logic would dictate that Turner Sports would program Europa League matches on truTV and possibly HLN, with the rest of the matches streamed.

Turner Sports has an opening for Director of Communications, requiring 8 years of public relations experience. Knowledge of MLB, NBA, NCAA Men’s Basketball, and PGA men’s golf are absolutely required. Knowledge of video gaming is a plus as Turner co-owns the video gaming competition business ELEAGUE. Knowledge of European club soccer is obviously a plus now that Turner will add the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League to its portfolio of sports.

I gave the heads-up to former MLS Toronto FC media relations director Michelle Lissel regarding this opening. She would be a potential fit because of her resume. Recall that she anchored Global Sportslink, FOX Sports World Report, and FOX Soccer Report for 7 years.

Ms. Lissel currently works for the CFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers as an executive assistant to CEO Wade Miller.

Prior to joining the Blue Bombers, Ms. Lissel was a weather person at CKND-TV (Global) Winnipeg, holding the job which once belonged to current beIN Sports USA personality and former FOX Soccer Report anchor Jeremy St. Louis.

Interesting to see the following corporate culture slogan on Turner Broadcasting’s HR recruiting website:

MORE FUN

LESS FEAR

ALL IN

If you are looking for a 100% purely British presentation of UEFA Champions League, you will NOT find that at Turner Sports.

The slogan tells me that the likes of David Levy and Lenny Daniels are exactly what I thought they were: two very selective-aggressive “high stakes poker players” with a great deal of patience. They will wait for the right moment to strike, as they did with the UEFA Champions League when they notice that Jamie Horowitz is now involved with remaking FS1 into a sports talk and debate destination.

If my read is correct, then Turner Sports will hire (with 99% probability) a young studio host with a fun and engaging personality and an extensive resume as a correspondent covering international soccer at the highest level. One female candidate that fits that description is already working for Turner Broadcasting as anchor/correspondent of World Sport on CNN Airport Network and CNN International. Finding someone who is better and is available at a cheaper price will be very difficult, if not impossible.

Watch the video below again if you haven’t already done so. CNN Sr. VP of Sports Content Bill Galvin hired her to replace Lara Baldesarra. After getting it very wrong with Lara, Mr. Galvin got the replacement hire correct.

the reason is Trutv need live sports like Ncaa tournament and need more live sports event
the second reason is HLN Because for the first ever live sports during the Nascar on Tnt in 2012 simulcast during the race on Daytona and it might use for overflow live sports program like Nba on Tnt , Mlb on Tbs and Ncaa tournament overflow during the postseason coverage.

I will throw out two new names for Turner Sports to consider as Atlanta-based studio pundits for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Super Cup starting August 2018.

1. “Bundesliga Bad Boy” Jermaine Jones. Dubbed the “filthiest player in Germany” by German news network n-tv before moving stateside to make his living in MLS, Jermaine Jones is the “Alexi Lalas” of the current generation of USMNT regulars. Jones played and scored goals for Schalke 04 in the UEFA Champions League.
Outspoken, fearless, and controversial, Jones will be the perfect studio pundit for any U.S. TV network if and when he decides to hang up his boots.

If you listen to the following interview of Jermaine Jones conducted by ESPN’s Max Bretos and Herculez Gomez (starting at the 18:05 mark of the podcast,) you will want Jermaine Jones to be your studio pundit.

“The criticism is always on me. Everybody tries it, if we lose the game, they always try to find the next guy who can play for Jermaine. It is never somebody else, it is always me. I’ll be honest: That p***es me off, where I say, ‘Wait a minute — when we play the big tournaments, I’m almost or always the best player on the field for this country.’ But then at the end of the day, they try to kick me out when we lose games. That’s not fair.”

“People hate and try to find mistakes when you lose games. To me, the point is what I’ve said always: Bring me the guy who is better at that position and show that week to week in the league, against me, against other teams. I respect it and I say, ‘If he’s better, I step away.’ I’m 35 — I can step away and say I had a good career. But right now, if you be honest, ask my teammates, ask the people inside. There’s nobody who can take my spot.”

“If I go to the national team right now, name me a player who has more Champions League games, who played in the highest levels — name me one. I am not a legend. My name is always [highlighted] when we lose, but all other guys are legends.”

“I want that the people respect me for that what I did. They respect Timmy, they respect Clint, they respect all of the people. I have no problem when you want to criticize me when I play a bad game. But if you want to go against me and say I’m a poor player and all kind of stuff, I’m sorry man, but there’s nobody in that national team who have the same games and have the same success where I’ve been.

“I’ve played over 15 years in Europe at a high level. Not 10, not five years, not one year. But sometimes it’s tough to look at numbers. I’m a German-American and maybe not a full American that you can sell like a product.”

As Alexi Lalas said on April 15 during pre-game of MLS on FOX:

“…I love Jermaine. I want Jermaine Jones on my team. He is big, bold. He is beautifully arrogant at times, but that’s what you want in a villain…Is he a pain in the neck sometimes? Yeah. But you know what, I like these big, bold personalities…Jermaine Jones is a gamer. When it comes down to it, Jermaine Jones delivers.”

(Oh, did I mention that Jermaine Jones has a rather colorful personal life, as a father of five children with former Miss Germany Sarah Gerth?)

The problem for Turner Sports: Jermaine Jones now lives in Los Angeles and plays for the LA Galaxy. That means he is on the radar of FOX Sports, which houses its soccer studio shows from the big set at the Pico Boulevard FOX Lot”. Furthermore, the likes of FS1/FS2 General Manager Jamie Horowitz (not to mention Eric Shanks, John Entz, and David Neal) are all drooling over a possible Alexi Lalas/Jermaine Jones studio pairing. One would expect FOX Sports to bid big for Jermaine Jones’ services.

I would be surprised if Turner Sports were able to win a bidding war against FOX Sports for Jermaine Jones. FOX Sports can offer Jones FIFA World Cup, USMNT matches, MLS, and the Bundesliga. Whereas Turner Sports can only offer UEFA Champions League.

Continuing from a previous post with a second name to consider as studio pundit:

2. Megan Rapinoe. One of the most outspoken members of the 2015 Women’s World Cup-winning USWNT, Megan Rapinoe has the qualities one would need to be a successful studio pundit. She is fearless and she is also no stranger to controversy with her political views and her gender preference. Her willingness to speak her mind has opened many doors for her as she has shown the ability to connect to diverse groups of people. She has also played professionally in Europe, having played UEFA Women’s Champions League matches for Lyon. She will be a “project” for any TV network that wants to hire her, as she will likely need a crash course in modern men’s international soccer tactics to be ready to provide high-level tactical analysis.

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Abby Wambach is not on my list. ESPN gave her a chance to be studio pundit during Euro 2016, but she was lackluster and tentative. I can imagine that ESPN was very disappointed with her performance.

One name that is on everyone’s DO NOT CALL list is Hope Solo, due to her numerous lapses in judgment over the years.

You will notice that the production people at CNN International have worked with Ms. Riley to raise her energy level and her enthusiasm compared to when she first went on camera at the BBC about 5 years ago.

While Ms. Riley’s energy level is not quite at the level of the female sports talent on U.S. Spanish-language sports networks such as Univision Deportes Network (Lindsay Casinelli, Ana Caty Hernandez, and particularly the newest UDN correspondent Iliana Jimenez have energy levels that are literally “off the charts”), Ms. Riley has certainly improved to the point where she will be presentable to a U.S. English-language network such as truTV, where she will be expected to connect with male viewers ages 12-35 within the first 5-10 seconds of each broadcast and keep them from switching to UDN or an illegal video feed from the UK or Asia.

Note that I have never met Ms. Riley. I have only watched videos of her. However, I have watched enough video to be able to associate 3 words with Ms. Riley:

Fun

Friendly

Informative

Those 3 words would be the same 3 words one would associate with perhaps the best American sports TV correspondent to have ever worked at ESPN regardless of gender, the legendary Andrea Kremer, who. at age 58, is still at the top of her game as the player health and wellness correspondent for NFL Network and as co-host of CBS Sports Network’s We Need to Talk, a general sports talk show with all female on-camera talent.

(Note: I have met Andrea Kremer in person once, at a satellite TV trade show in Las Vegas in July 1999, where she appeared with the late Stuart Scott. I would find out later from newspaper articles in January 2000 that Ms. Kremer was about 2 months pregnant with her son at the time of the trade show. I attended the trade show for the purpose of meeting an ESPN Enterprises marketing representative, who directed me to submit a proposal to her boss to use soccerTV.com to conduct an internet direct marketing campaign for the ESPN Extra soccer-centric pay-per-view service. .)

Ms. Riley has shown me that she has just enough “Andrea Kremer” in her for me to conclude that she will ultimately be the correct person to host UEFA on truTV, if she were able to ace her interviews and her auditions to be conducted by Turner Sports executives and senior managers.

If you want the bandwagon that is the “American soccer community” to continue to grow, you should be excited that someone with Ms. Riley’s skills and personality is on the verge of landing her dream job. You would want her to win the studio host position for UEFA on truTV.

Because Turner Sports chose not to purchase U.S. Spanish-language rights to the UEFA Club properties, Turner Sports will run into the same problem ESPN/ABC had to deal with for the past 20 years (with the World Cup and U.S. Men’s National Team matches): English-speaking viewers will defect in large numbers to Univision because they didn’t like the product ESPN/ABC was putting out.

Univision Deportes Network (UDN) will be a formidable competitor to Turner Sports (i.e. truTV) for young male viewers ages 12-25 and 18-34, especially those who are bilingual, because UDN knows how to produce sports television that can effective connect and retain these viewers.

Some of UDN’s techniques:

1. Univision will assign anchors and reporters, especially young female sportscasters whose energy levels are off the charts, to the front line.

2. Front load the first 15-20 minutes (i.e. “Block A”) of each show without a commercial break.

Bottom line: any viewer who decides to use his remote control to surf from Turner (i.e. truTV) to UDN will be lost to Turner forever, because Univision knows how to connect and retain that viewer.

Below is a link to a video clip from UDN’s Contacto Deportivo from Wednesday May 3, with the story of the historic launch of Copa MX Feminil, the Mexican Women’s Cup tournament.

The anchors in UDN’s Miami studio were Venezuelan sportscaster Lindsay Casinelli (whose energy level put all current and former CNN International and CNN en Espanol sports anchor to shame), and the Vice President of Editorial for UDN, Mexican sportscaster Edgar Martinez.

The reporter for the Copa MX Feminil package was Iliana Jimenez, a young Mexican sportscaster who considers herself to be a singer first, a public speaker second, and a host/anchor third. Jimenez currently hosts Zona NBA, which airs on UniMas on Sundays at 10am Eastern/Pacific.

A new name for studio pundit may have vaulted to the top of Turner’s list:
Atlanta United (MLS) co-commentator Dan Gargan
Why?
Because Gargan now lives in Atlanta and Turner Sports (read: COO Matthew Hong, who has plenty of experience running NBA TV on a tight budget) can definitely afford to hire him.

MLS has released a highlights package of Gargan’s work this past weekend on FOX Sports Southeast:

While Mr. Gargan might not be the best one out there, he has shown with his match analysis/co-commentary work that he should be able to make the transition to studio pundit, as long as he does NOT hold back his thoughts for reasons having to do with “soccer industry politics”.

If one were in Turner Sports COO Matthew Hong’s shoes and were to need to hire 3 talent for the UEFA on truTV (or HLN, or whatever channel Turner will use) studio show with an extremely tight budget (due to Turner being absorbed by AT&T, and due to challenging economic conditions anticipated in 2019 and 2020 after the stock market corrects), then affordable candidates for 2 out of 3 spots are available at the top of a Mel Kiper-style “draft big board”.

Studio Host: Kate Riley. Riley was hired by CNN executive Bill Galvin in July 2015 as a CNN International World Sport anchor/correspondent. She has 5 years of experience covering international sports on television, including soccer at the highest level, mostly in the U.K. where she worked for the BBC and Sky Sports News. She has shown the ability to get big names (both in soccer and away from soccer, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ronda Rousey, and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred) to open up to her in interviews the way two legendary American female sportscasters with 3 decades of experience each, namely Andrea Kremer and Hannah Storm, have done in their respective careers. She also has a fun and friendly personality that is absolutely necessary for the studio host role, as Turner will in be a dogfight against Univision for the 100,000 or so bilingual viewers. (Every 1000 viewers ages 12-24 will be worth $15-25 for every 30 seconds of advertising time, and there are 10 minutes of national advertising during a 1-hour pregame show.)

Jermaine Jones might be out of reach for Turner Sports, as one would expect FOX Sports to be able to offer Jermaine Jones 1) a chance to work from home in Los Angeles, 2) more money and 3) more work (MLS, USMNT, and Bundesliga).

Knowing what I know about Turner Sports executives EVP/Chief Content Officer Craig Barry and COO Matthew Hong, I now expect Turner to use 100% world feeds for UEFA club soccer. The merger into AT&T, plus expected challenging economy conditions (due to the inevitable stock market correction as the Federal Reserve Bank raise interest rates), may force Turner to squeeze every penny.

The link below is video from an episode of World Sport on CNN International from July 9, 2015, with anchor Kate Riley interviewing Carlos Bocanegra from the “living room” set in the old studio (World Sport moved to a bigger studio in August 2015):

Casting Carlos Bocanegra and Kate Riley together for the UEFA on truTV/HLN/digital/etc. studio show should work from a “chemistry” perspective, as long as Bocanegra can obtain permission from his bosses at Atlanta United (MLS) and if he doesn’t ask for too much money.

1. According to documents released by UEFA (i.e. from press officer Pedro Pinto’s office), Turner Sports has NOT signed the rights contracts for U.S. English-language rights to as of July 21. Univision Deportes signed rights contracts for U.S. Spanish-language rights several months ago and made its announcement during the May 2017 Upfront presentation in New York City.

Is the pending acquisition of Time Warner, Inc. by AT&T the reason why the contracts have not been signed by Turner Sports? No one is talking.

2. Several media outlets (starting with Deadline.com on August 4) is reporting that AT&T is considering selling CNN. If AT&T were to sell CNN, then CNN and CNN International will no longer be part of Turner Broadcasting, and CNN sports talent might no longer be considered “internal” candidates for the host role for UEFA on truTV.

3. The list of CNN International World Sport on-camera talent has grown by one: American sportscaster Andy Scholes has added World Sport to his duties as update anchor on “Bleacher Report on HLN” segments. Scholes would be yet another Atlanta-based internal candidate, joining British-American sportscaster Kate Riley and British sportscasters Patrick Snell (who has been with CNN in Atlanta since the CNN/Sports Illustrated era in the late 1990s; Snell was a “Formula 1 expert” when he started at CNN) and Don Riddell (who was transferred from London to Atlanta after Candy Reid left CNN to open a tennis school.)

5. If Turner Sports needs to hire the cheapest Atlanta-based candidate who meets minimum qualifications to host UEFA on truTV, then Atlanta United FC TV host Brittany Arnold would be an option.

6. Atlanta United FC Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra remains the biggest Atlanta-based name who may be available for a studio pundit (analyst) role. Bocanegra played for Fulham when Fulham was in the English Premier League.

7. Atlanta United FC TV co-commentator Dan Gargan, the undisputed “star” of the Atlanta United broadcast team, as he spends 3 hours on the air during each broadcast, actually lives in St. Louis, where he runs a youth soccer academy owned by his former college roommate. Gargan commutes to all Atlanta United telecasts, home or away, from St. Louis

Updating the Turner Sports UEFA club soccer story as of August 15, 2017:

UEFA updated its public documents on August 10, 2017 to include “Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.” as companies that have signed contracts for TV rights to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Turner’s rights are for the U.S. market and only in the English language.

My reaction: good luck to Turner with the over-the-top service, as Univision only has to spend $50,000 in production cost each season to give away every UEFA Champions League group stage match that Univision cannot air on UDN or UniMas.

The UEFA Europa League isn’t worth much if anything as a subscription product. Besides, UDN and UniMas will have UEFA Europa League doubleheaders on each match day, for a total of 4 matches.

After “discovering” I can watch World Sport via the live stream of CNN International – North America at go.cnn.com or via the CNNgo app (authenticated access only for pay TV subscribers of CNN and HLN), I have been watching World Sport for the past month.

My opinion on the host candidate has changed.

After watching Kate Riley butcher 4 names on 3 shows within 10 days in early December (she mispronounced Vincent Aboubakar, Igor Kovalchuk, Evgenia Medvedeva, and Gremio), my impression of Kate Riley has completely changed for the worse. She came across to me as lazy and disrespectful of the audience.

Can Turner Sports officials (i.e. Matthew Hong, Craig Barry, and Lenny Daniels) trust Riley to perform a clean studio show over a period of 4.5 hours when she won’t even take the time to check names for a 10-minute sports news program? With $4 million in advertising on the line, Riley is now a “high-risk” candidate in my opinion.

Both Patrick Snell and Don Riddell are safer choices than Kate Riley at this point.

If I were Matthew Hong and I were force to choose now, I would rank the three candidates in the following order:

1. Patrick Snell
2. Don Riddell
3. Kate Riley

Snell nails every name, and he knows how to deliver highlights with energy and enthusiasm.

Riley, despite her personality that appeals to males ages 18-34, has too many holes in her performance.

Because Univision Communications, Inc. now owns Deadspin, the sports news website for “haters”, Univision can and will use Deadspin to mock and lampoon Turner Sports personalities who make mistakes repeatedly. The version of Kate Riley I watched in early December is precisely the type of sportscaster that the likes of Deadspin will attack. In my opinion, Turner Sports can’t afford the downside risk with Riley.

If Kate Riley (who is getting married on February 10 to Omnimetrix President/COO Walter Czarnecki; presumably she will take some time off for her honeymoon) can fix herself by the end of April 2018 to the satisfaction of Turner executives Matthew Hong, Craig Barry, Bill Galvin, Lenny Daniels, and David Levy, then she might still be hired because she, at age 35, still has appeal to the male ages 18-34 demographic because of her fun and friendly personality.

Hosting UEFA Champions League doubleheaders, especially during the group stage (8 matches on Tuesday and Wednesdays on 6 weeks between mid-September and early December), is not an easy job. There are lots of names of players and coaches that the host will have to check before he/she goes on camera. Not to mention that the host will have to know European club soccer well enough to ask the studio pundit (presumably Atlanta United FC VP/Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra) the right questions in order to direct the discussion in the correct direction to provide information to the viewers.

All video evidence I examined during the past 6 weeks of watching World Sport on CNN International – North America (via go.cnn.com or the CNNgo app) points to Patrick Snell as the most knowledge candidate who is based at CNN Center in Atlanta, followed by Don Riddell. Kate Riley is in 3rd place among the “internal” candidates based in Atlanta.

As for the London-based candidates, Alex Thomas believes he is the best qualified. Amanda Davies (pronounced like “Davis” with a short “i”) would be the 2nd choice. Christina Macfarlane (a former swimsuit model and ski instructor) has the same issues that Kate Riley has with mispronouncing names.

Freelancer Rhiannion Jones would have been hired already if she were on staff, as she has prior experience as host of Real Madrid TV, she speaks Spanish fluently, and she nails all the names (not to mentioned that she stayed physically fit before she became pregnant with her first child; she is due to give birth in April.)

I heard Rebecca Lowe & Kay Murray pronounce names wrong as some of them are tongue twisters . I would like to see Warren Barton from Fox & Andres Cordero from BeIN Sport as studio pundits for the Champions League on Turner next season as they are the best quailfed to give proper analysis of the games . Good luck to Kate Riley on getting married . She will be a breath of fresh air instead of that numskull Kate Abdo who cannot even put two words together

Kate Abdo (formerly Kate Giles when she was anchoring World Sport on CNN International and contibuting to Deporte CNN on CNN en Espanol) knows how to ask the right questions to direct the pundits in the right direction. That’s her job.

I now have a lot of doubts whether Kate Riley has all the necessary skills and the right work ethic to host UEFA Champions League on truTV.

Kate Abdo fumbles over every time she see tries to ask a question . I know she is on the Bundelige coverage thank god I don’t watch it . The thought of having her on the World Cup coverage on Fox is enough for me to switch to Telemundo even if my spainish is not that good . Who are these people who nobody ever heard of that Kate got it wrong .

Guess who’s back in ATL to anchor World Sport on CNN International on Sunday 21Jan2018?

Hopefully, Kate Riley checked all names with Forvo.com before going on camera this time.

If Kate Riley wants to come within breathing distance of Studio J at Turner’s Techwood Campus (the NBA on TNT studio set that can be used for UEFA Champions League on truTV), her performance in the next 90 days need to be 100% clean. If she were to butcher any more names, then Matt Hong will definitely go with Patrick Snell or Don Riddell.

Updated version of CNN International World Sport airs daily at 7:30pm NY Time (0130 CET), streamed live at go.cnn.com & CNNgo app for authenticated subscribers.